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Last night, I attended the closing reception for a Maker Faire exhibit at The Tech Museum in San Jose. Lath Carlson and a team of curators at The Tech came to Maker Faire Bay Area in May and selected a set of makers and their exhibits to display this summer. The link above has a complete list of the featured makers. I took some photos as I walked around.

I found it interesting to see these maker-made exhibits in a different setting. Russell the Giraffe was caged, unable to roam around and play music. His maker, Lindsay Lawlor, wasn’t there in person to tell us about the latest modifications. Nonetheless, seeing Russell in the lobby was a delightful experience. Even out of the context of Maker Faire, these maker-made exhibits speak to you differently than professional museum exhibits. You can clearly see how they were made and I hope that it helps people think that they could make interesting things such as the ones were on display. Carlson said that the makers were really pleased to see their work on display in a museum. (I must admit there were one or two items that I didn’t see at Maker Faire myself — there’s so much at Maker Faire.)

Carlson said that about 40,000 people visited the exhibition this summer, many of whom knew nothing about Maker Faire. He said the exhibit attracted a good deal of interest, especially among kids visiting as part of summer camps and families. The Tech had about five staff members in the area interacting with visitors, talking about the maker-made exhibits and conducting hands-on workshops. One day, there could be a traveling “Maker Faire” exhibition and perhaps The Tech might want to repeat this exhibit next summer. One idea I had is how might we feature a set of exhibits like these in schools, adding something to a school lobby and offering inspiration to teachers and students to become makers themselves.